Over the course of this spring semester, I have been introduced to many new styles of writing in my Foundations of College Writing class. Each of these genres involved different characteristics and criteria that must be included. As a whole, these genres worked together for a solid purpose of displaying my main topic, Lucille Ball. Instead of only focusing on the life of Lucille Ball in general, I narrowed my topic into the many different aspects that Lucille Ball has influenced in her lifetime, including women, Jamestown, NY (her birthplace), and comedy entertainment. While writing each piece for this project, as well as an interview essay assignment, I made sure to meet the five course goals that were established in the beginning of the semester. In this essay, I will reflect on each of the five goals and provide a specific example and description of a piece of my writing that fits each goal.
Synthesis:
A. Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes
Aside from the main project, we were assigned to interview a professor in our major and then compose a school essay. This example of writing, without a doubt, follows this goal. For this essay, I interviewed a science professor because I, too, hope to teach science. It included a thesis, intro, body, and conclusion, and I made sure to incorporate the 3 INs (introduce, insert, and interpret) for each point. I addressed Goal A in this piece of writing by following PAGE (purpose, audience, genre, and engagement). My purpose (to learn of the writing that is involved in teaching science) was addressed in my thesis statement in my intro, throughout my body paragraphs with different examples including the different kinds of writing science teachers use, the writing that is done on an average day, the audiences that they write for, and their reflection on what they get out of writing, and, again, restated in the conclusion by repeating the importance of writing for a science teacher. My audience (my professor, my other colleagues, other future science teachers, and anyone else interested in the writing that a science teacher does) was reflected in how I presented the information that I gathered from the interview. I used language that is common among teachers so that they can better connect with the information. The genre was a school essay format. Engagement, the effect on the author herself, was shown when I mention the large amount of writing that is used in this major that I never took the time to consider before.
As a student who is still transitioning from high school to college writing classes, this assignment really helped me progress as a writer. Before PAGE, I never really took into consideration the audience that I was writing for. I learned that a piece of writing is much more effective if you use a style and language that is more relevant to the people who will read it. I also learned how to improve on writing a thesis so that I state my purpose for the paper and also preview on main topics that I will further address.
B. Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to the genre
One of my genres that I wrote for my project on Lucille Ball that displays an appropriate use of grammar, writing style, and content is my advice column. My topic for my mainproject in this class is Lucille Ball and the ways that she influenced people, places, and society. One of the major subjects that Lucille Ball impacted in her lifetime was women-including their role in society and the role of mothers in the workforce. I chose an advice column as an appropriate genre to display this influence. In this genre, I had two separate females write in to Lucy's advice column. The first was a soon-to-be mother who loves her job as a secretary and does not want to forfeit her position because she is having a child. Since Lucille Ball exemplified the role of a working mother and was very successful, she suggested that the woman keep her job because it would make her happy and would not affect her parenting skills. The second girl that wrote in was a teenager who recently got accepted to Yale Drama School, but her parents will not give her permission to go because they believe it is her job to get married and be a domestic housewife. Lucy had the opportunity to go to drama school as a young teen so she suggests that the girl reason with her parents to let her try it out for a few months and to live with no regrets. In this genre, I made sure to include the characteristics (what to include) and the criteria (how to make it good) of an advice column. I made sure to offer suggestions and not just tell someone what to do, to include a main topic or concern for each person writing in, and to make my responses relatable and practical. Also, through this genre, I demonstrated the use of L.O.V.E (language, organization, voice, evidence). For language, I wrote as if it were a conversation, which required informal wording. For organization, I set up my advice column as it would appear in a newspaper. It has columns and the people writing in write a short segment explaining their dilemma, and Lucy answers right after that. The words and picture are all aligned to appear more professional and authentic. For voice, I included Lucy's spunky attitude in her replies to sound as she would. For evidence, I used footnotes to cite the information about Lucy's pregnancies. I've never really had to analyze other forms of writing before this class because I'm so used to only writing papers, so as a writer I definitely progressed in my openness to other forms of writing and my understanding of the different components that the different forms need to include.
C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments
A major requirement of this writing class is a ten-page journal article that models an article in a journal from our major. In my article, I decided to present another way of interpreting the life of Lucille Ball. Previous research on her has mainly focused on the positive events in her life that led to her success and her personality. They neglected, however, to point out the unfortunate events in her life that greatly contributed to her character and her success in her careers, so this is what I decided to research for my article. As a prerequisite to writing this, I recorded the information that I found that would be useful in an FAQ-I sheet. This is a prewriting strategy for organizing the information that you find. It includes facts, how the facts will be useful to your argument, questions that you may have about the facts or what you'd further like to explore, and an integrations sections that includes where you would like to use this information. I read my sources (books, websites, journal articles), selected important information that I could use in my article, and used this information and the corresponding sources as evidence in my article to support my argument.
I've learned many brainstorming and prewriting strategies before, such as making a brainstorming web or doing a quick-write, but I found these FAQ-I sheets to be the most useful by far. They are very organized and allow you to preview your entire paper before you even begin to write by thinking of where the information that you found would best fit. As a result, I feel that my article was very well planned out and organized. I progressed as a writer through the FAQ-I sheets and also through writing an article that models my major because now I have a new prewriting strategy that can be applied in my future, and I also know what to expect in an education journal article.
D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres
Out of all of my genres that I composed, I especially liked creating my travel brochure to Jamestown, NY. To do this, I first needed to interpret the qualities that were included in a travel brochure including the main features/attractions, pictures, contact information, different colors and sizes-visuals, and word alignment to look more professional or authentic. I incorporated C.R.A.P (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity) in this genre. For contrast, I used very different colors and sizes to make it stand out and draw attention to important information. For repetition, I repeated the colors red and black frequently because those are colors that come to mind to many when they think of Lucy. I also include a reoccurring heart shape theme and have each heading in a box. For alignment, I made sure that each picture and shape and header lines up with the text to give it a professional and authentic look. For proximity, each column contains information that is grouped together to appear as one. I progressed as a writer when writing this brochure because it allowed me to use the information that I found in a creative and visual way. It also helped me to focus on my audience more than I normally would because I'm trying to attract the audience to visit Jamestown, so it is a critical part to this genre.
E. Students will be able to describe and apply appropriate writing processes, both individually and in collaborative contexts
The revision sheets, peer review sheets/sessions, and the many drafts of each piece of writing are good examples of this goal. Writing is a continuous process that includes many steps that must be done to reach the finished product. These revisions should be done individually as well as with your peers. For each genre that was written, a peer review process was done in class with one other person. This allowed for another person's feedback and opinions and comments on your work so that you knew what you were doing right and what you could improve on. From the feedback from my teacher and my peers, as well as my own input on what I could change, I completed multiple revision sheets with what I originally had and what I changed it to. This prevents repetition of similar mistakes in the future. I used the revisions from my revision sheet and went back to my draft to fix it. This process was done until I could no longer find any errors or corrections. As a writer, this step helped me to progress with my editing skills and really look deeper into what I could change about the content and not just the grammar part of it.
This writing course has been very rewarding in that it helped me to witness that writing really is all around us in many different styles and forms. As I am beginning to package all of my genres into my final scrapbook, I see how each genre that I composed does a good job in showing Lucille Ball’s influences in interesting forms, rather than just telling about them in a paper. This greatly benefits my project by making it more interesting and entertaining for my audience. At first, it was difficult to accustom my usual writing habit to the different elements that each genre required. Analyzing models and extracting the main characteristics and criteria for each, however, proved to be very helpful. As an education major, I can definitely see myself using multiple genres in my teaching. Each student is unique and has different ways of learning. By providing information to my students in varying ways, rather than just through notes or text, the students will find learning fun and have a better chance at absorbing the information and learning it, not just through memorization. I am so excited to become a teacher and cannot wait to use these multiple genres for my future students!
Synthesis:
A. Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes
Aside from the main project, we were assigned to interview a professor in our major and then compose a school essay. This example of writing, without a doubt, follows this goal. For this essay, I interviewed a science professor because I, too, hope to teach science. It included a thesis, intro, body, and conclusion, and I made sure to incorporate the 3 INs (introduce, insert, and interpret) for each point. I addressed Goal A in this piece of writing by following PAGE (purpose, audience, genre, and engagement). My purpose (to learn of the writing that is involved in teaching science) was addressed in my thesis statement in my intro, throughout my body paragraphs with different examples including the different kinds of writing science teachers use, the writing that is done on an average day, the audiences that they write for, and their reflection on what they get out of writing, and, again, restated in the conclusion by repeating the importance of writing for a science teacher. My audience (my professor, my other colleagues, other future science teachers, and anyone else interested in the writing that a science teacher does) was reflected in how I presented the information that I gathered from the interview. I used language that is common among teachers so that they can better connect with the information. The genre was a school essay format. Engagement, the effect on the author herself, was shown when I mention the large amount of writing that is used in this major that I never took the time to consider before.
As a student who is still transitioning from high school to college writing classes, this assignment really helped me progress as a writer. Before PAGE, I never really took into consideration the audience that I was writing for. I learned that a piece of writing is much more effective if you use a style and language that is more relevant to the people who will read it. I also learned how to improve on writing a thesis so that I state my purpose for the paper and also preview on main topics that I will further address.
B. Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to the genre
One of my genres that I wrote for my project on Lucille Ball that displays an appropriate use of grammar, writing style, and content is my advice column. My topic for my mainproject in this class is Lucille Ball and the ways that she influenced people, places, and society. One of the major subjects that Lucille Ball impacted in her lifetime was women-including their role in society and the role of mothers in the workforce. I chose an advice column as an appropriate genre to display this influence. In this genre, I had two separate females write in to Lucy's advice column. The first was a soon-to-be mother who loves her job as a secretary and does not want to forfeit her position because she is having a child. Since Lucille Ball exemplified the role of a working mother and was very successful, she suggested that the woman keep her job because it would make her happy and would not affect her parenting skills. The second girl that wrote in was a teenager who recently got accepted to Yale Drama School, but her parents will not give her permission to go because they believe it is her job to get married and be a domestic housewife. Lucy had the opportunity to go to drama school as a young teen so she suggests that the girl reason with her parents to let her try it out for a few months and to live with no regrets. In this genre, I made sure to include the characteristics (what to include) and the criteria (how to make it good) of an advice column. I made sure to offer suggestions and not just tell someone what to do, to include a main topic or concern for each person writing in, and to make my responses relatable and practical. Also, through this genre, I demonstrated the use of L.O.V.E (language, organization, voice, evidence). For language, I wrote as if it were a conversation, which required informal wording. For organization, I set up my advice column as it would appear in a newspaper. It has columns and the people writing in write a short segment explaining their dilemma, and Lucy answers right after that. The words and picture are all aligned to appear more professional and authentic. For voice, I included Lucy's spunky attitude in her replies to sound as she would. For evidence, I used footnotes to cite the information about Lucy's pregnancies. I've never really had to analyze other forms of writing before this class because I'm so used to only writing papers, so as a writer I definitely progressed in my openness to other forms of writing and my understanding of the different components that the different forms need to include.
C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments
A major requirement of this writing class is a ten-page journal article that models an article in a journal from our major. In my article, I decided to present another way of interpreting the life of Lucille Ball. Previous research on her has mainly focused on the positive events in her life that led to her success and her personality. They neglected, however, to point out the unfortunate events in her life that greatly contributed to her character and her success in her careers, so this is what I decided to research for my article. As a prerequisite to writing this, I recorded the information that I found that would be useful in an FAQ-I sheet. This is a prewriting strategy for organizing the information that you find. It includes facts, how the facts will be useful to your argument, questions that you may have about the facts or what you'd further like to explore, and an integrations sections that includes where you would like to use this information. I read my sources (books, websites, journal articles), selected important information that I could use in my article, and used this information and the corresponding sources as evidence in my article to support my argument.
I've learned many brainstorming and prewriting strategies before, such as making a brainstorming web or doing a quick-write, but I found these FAQ-I sheets to be the most useful by far. They are very organized and allow you to preview your entire paper before you even begin to write by thinking of where the information that you found would best fit. As a result, I feel that my article was very well planned out and organized. I progressed as a writer through the FAQ-I sheets and also through writing an article that models my major because now I have a new prewriting strategy that can be applied in my future, and I also know what to expect in an education journal article.
D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres
Out of all of my genres that I composed, I especially liked creating my travel brochure to Jamestown, NY. To do this, I first needed to interpret the qualities that were included in a travel brochure including the main features/attractions, pictures, contact information, different colors and sizes-visuals, and word alignment to look more professional or authentic. I incorporated C.R.A.P (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity) in this genre. For contrast, I used very different colors and sizes to make it stand out and draw attention to important information. For repetition, I repeated the colors red and black frequently because those are colors that come to mind to many when they think of Lucy. I also include a reoccurring heart shape theme and have each heading in a box. For alignment, I made sure that each picture and shape and header lines up with the text to give it a professional and authentic look. For proximity, each column contains information that is grouped together to appear as one. I progressed as a writer when writing this brochure because it allowed me to use the information that I found in a creative and visual way. It also helped me to focus on my audience more than I normally would because I'm trying to attract the audience to visit Jamestown, so it is a critical part to this genre.
E. Students will be able to describe and apply appropriate writing processes, both individually and in collaborative contexts
The revision sheets, peer review sheets/sessions, and the many drafts of each piece of writing are good examples of this goal. Writing is a continuous process that includes many steps that must be done to reach the finished product. These revisions should be done individually as well as with your peers. For each genre that was written, a peer review process was done in class with one other person. This allowed for another person's feedback and opinions and comments on your work so that you knew what you were doing right and what you could improve on. From the feedback from my teacher and my peers, as well as my own input on what I could change, I completed multiple revision sheets with what I originally had and what I changed it to. This prevents repetition of similar mistakes in the future. I used the revisions from my revision sheet and went back to my draft to fix it. This process was done until I could no longer find any errors or corrections. As a writer, this step helped me to progress with my editing skills and really look deeper into what I could change about the content and not just the grammar part of it.
This writing course has been very rewarding in that it helped me to witness that writing really is all around us in many different styles and forms. As I am beginning to package all of my genres into my final scrapbook, I see how each genre that I composed does a good job in showing Lucille Ball’s influences in interesting forms, rather than just telling about them in a paper. This greatly benefits my project by making it more interesting and entertaining for my audience. At first, it was difficult to accustom my usual writing habit to the different elements that each genre required. Analyzing models and extracting the main characteristics and criteria for each, however, proved to be very helpful. As an education major, I can definitely see myself using multiple genres in my teaching. Each student is unique and has different ways of learning. By providing information to my students in varying ways, rather than just through notes or text, the students will find learning fun and have a better chance at absorbing the information and learning it, not just through memorization. I am so excited to become a teacher and cannot wait to use these multiple genres for my future students!